House Dems protest hearing on religious freedom

Church leaders: Birth-control policy violates rights

by Jim Abrams - Feb. 16, 2012 10:56 PMAssociated Press

WASHINGTON - Religious leaders told a House panel Thursday the Obama administration was violating basic rights to religious freedom with its policies for requiring that employees of religion-affiliated institutions have access to birth-control coverage.

The unity of the religious leaders contrasted with the partisan divide among lawmakers on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with Democrats saying they had been denied the ability to present witnesses who might support the government stance or speak for the rights of women to reproductive-health coverage. They asked why women weren't better represented among the 10 witnesses at the hearing.

The issue has sparked a political firestorm for the administration, with Catholics and other religious groups strongly protesting an original Health and Human Services ruling that religion-affiliated institutions such as hospitals and universities must include free birth-control coverage in their employee health plans. The churches themselves were exempted from the requirement.

Obama last Friday modified that policy so that insurance companies, and not the organization affiliated with a church, pay for birth-control costs, but that didn't satisfy those testifying at the hearing.

Bishop William E. Lori, representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, compared the ruling to a law that would force all food providers, including kosher delicatessens, to serve pork.

"Does the fact that large majorities in society, even large majorities within the protesting religious community, reject a particular religious belief make it permissible for the government to weigh in on one side of that dispute?" he asked.

Churches played a role in the development of health care and "it is ironic that the religious organizations should have their rights crushed in the name of health care," said Dr. Craig Mitchell, a Baptist minister and head of the ethics department at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The policy has split Catholics, a key constituency for Obama to win a second term in office.

The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, told the Associated Press this week that his group would launch both legislative and court challenges to the health-care mandate. Yet there are also some Catholic groups and individuals who have come out in support of the president's approach.

They were not there at Thursday's hearing.

"The chairman is promoting a conspiracy theory that the federal government is conducting a 'war' against religion," the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said of committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "He has also refused to allow a minority witness to testify about the interests of women who want safe and affordable coverage for basic preventive health care, including contraception," Cummings said of Issa.